


earthly (or, rather, space-ly) attachments

by lilies_and_roses



Category: Among Us (Video Game), Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26851147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilies_and_roses/pseuds/lilies_and_roses
Summary: Zuko needs to sabotage the spaceship so that he can regain his honor and return home. That would be a whole lot easier if a certain Water Planet warrior wasn't so charming.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 94





	earthly (or, rather, space-ly) attachments

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea for a zukka among us au and couldn't get it out of my head until I wrote it. It's a joke, but also, is it a joke?

“Everyone to the cafeteria!” Blue called as soon as it was safe for them to unbuckle their seatbelts.

Zuko walked to the cafeteria and stood around the table with everyone else.

“So!” Blue said, “You all know the plan. We’ve got to take this ship to the Fire Planet and meet up with everyone else before the invasion. You’ve all been assigned tasks to help maintain the ship on the way. You can see what you’ve been assigned if you look at your personal computer.”

Zuko looked at his personal computer and didn’t see anything. He was about to ask Blue what that meant, but then he remembered, and silently kicked himself for almost ruining the plan.

“Okay, if there aren’t any questions, then let’s get to our tasks!” Blue said.

Everyone started walking in different directions. Zuko wasn’t really sure what he should be doing. “Find a way onto the mission and then sabotage the ship” was a pretty loose plan. He remembered what Iroh had said to him, that he never thinks these things through. He always came up with the beginning of a plan but figured he would improvise the rest of it. That usually didn’t work.

Why couldn’t he just be more like _Azula_? She would’ve planned every move of this down to the minute. But she wasn’t here. Instead, it was _Zuko_ who had disrespected his father at that war meeting three years ago, and _Zuko_ who had been given the impossible task of stopping the rebellion. Azula would never have been tactless enough to get into this situation, and she would’ve been able to actually succeed at this mission.

Anyways, Zuko couldn’t just keep standing around. He walked into a hallway then turned left into the first room he saw. It looked like a hospital. He read a sign on the wall—MedBay, it said. He walked into the room and looked around. Maybe he could pretend to do a task? He walked up to the computer and tried to pretend to be doing something with it.

Then, he saw Purple walk into the room.

“Hey,” Purple said, walking up to Zuko, “I’m supposed to scan samples on that computer? What are you doing?”

Zuko began to panic. So he did the first thing that came to mind. He took out the knife he carried, the one that Iroh had given him, and stabbed Purple in the chest.

Purple’s eyes went wide, they choked, and blood started pouring out of the wound. Purple collapsed.

 _Shit_ , Zuko thought, _Oh, this is bad. This is really, really bad._ Zuko knelt down to try to feel a pulse, careful to not get blood on himself (though, it might not be noticeable against his red clothing). He couldn’t feel anything. Purple was dead.

Zuko looked around for a way out. He didn’t want to be seen leaving a room with a dead body in it, so the door would be a last resort. He saw a vent in the corner. Well, crawling through a vent might not be the most honorable thing to do, but it was better than being caught having just _killed_ someone.

He got into the vent and crawled until he saw an opening. He peeked out and saw no one, so he got out. He saw a sign that read “Electrical” and sat down. He had to sit and _think_ about this for a minute.

Maybe… maybe this _was_ the way to stop the ship. Maybe he just had to keep killing crewmates until they were all gone. He didn’t like the thought of it. But his honor was on the line. And he was almost certain that Ozai would most likely forgive him for killing a bunch of rebels if it meant he stopped the ship.

In fact, Ozai would probably _like_ it if Zuko were to kill these people. Zuko had only been tasked with stopping this ship, but if he were able to kill the crewmates too, the ones who had come up with the plan for the invasion… Ozai would honor him more than he had ever expected.

Zuko wiped off his knife on the inside of his clothing, and read the inscription: _Never give up without a fight_.

Zuko felt disgusting about this. He didn’t want blood on his hands. But he had to do it.

He got up and started walking towards the door when an alarm on his personal computer started going off.

“DEAD BODY REPORTED. MEETING IN THE CAFETERIA RIGHT NOW.”

Well, that was inevitable, Zuko supposed. Someone was going to find the body eventually. Zuko took a deep breath and started walking towards the cafeteria. They had no reason to suspect him as long as he stayed calm.

Zuko walked to the cafeteria and watched as the rest of the crew filed in.

“Okay,” Blue said, “What the _fuck_ just happened.”

“Blue!” Cyan said, “Not in front of Orange and Lime!”

“Excuse me,” Lime said, “I’m not a baby. I’ve heard the word ‘fuck’ before.”

“And, _Cyan_?" Blue said, “I think a dead body is more disturbing than a curse word.”

Cyan chose to ignore that last comment and said, “Okay, I found Purple’s body in MedBay. I got out my first aid kit to try to help, but they were already dead, from a stab wound”

“Okay, let’s think about this together,” Blue said, “It had to be one of us, right? No one else is on the ship, and it seems pretty unlikely to me that Purple would’ve just stabbed themself out of nowhere like that.”

“But how could that be?” Orange asked, “Why would someone do that?”

“I think it’s clear,” Blue said, “There is an impostor among us. Someone from the Fire Planet has been sent to sabotage our ship.”

They all stood in silence for a moment. Zuko briefly forgot how to breathe. _They’re onto me,_ he thought.

“So, um, does anyone have any ideas what we should do about it?” Green asked.

No one spoke for a few seconds.

“I have an idea,” Blue said, “We could pair up. Then we could keep an eye on each other. Um… Orange, you go with Cyan.” Zuko noticed Orange blush a bit. “Oh, Orange and Cyan, you two should also take Black, because there’s an odd number of us now. Green, go with Brown. Lime, go with White. And I’ll go with Red.”

Blue winked at Zuko, and Zuko felt himself blush. He decided to ignore that. There were more pressing issues at hand.

“Um, Blue?” Lime asked, “How am I supposed to ‘keep an eye’ on White?”

“What do you mean?” Blue asked.

Lime waved her hand in front of her face, looking very annoyed.

“Oh, right,” Blue said, “Um… okay, Orange, you go with Lime and White. That sound good with everyone?”

There were nods and murmurs of agreement, and people started partnering off.

Blue walked up to Zuko and said, “So I guess it’s just you and me then, darling.”

“What?” Zuko said, feeling heat rising in his cheeks once more.

“We are but two soldiers in this endless war, fated to be together for all time,’’ Blue said, grinning. Upon seeing the look on Zuko’s face, he said, “Oh, come on. Where’s your sense of humor? Let’s go to Navigation, I have a task there.”

They walked through the hallways together until they reached Navigation.

“So, what’s your name?” Blue asked.

“Um, Red?”

“I mean your real name. I know what the Mechanist said—it’s easier to just go by colors on the ship. But I want to get to know my fellow crewmates.”

“Oh,” Zuko knew his name was very clearly a Fire Planet name, “Um, I’m… Lee.”

“Nice to actually meet you, Lee. I’m Sokka. I’m kinda the brains behind this whole operation,” Sokka said, smiling.

Okay, this was good information. Iroh had helped him figure out what ship the leaders were on, but now Zuko had figured out who the leader was. Maybe he could find out more.

“Um, nice to meet you, Sokka. Do you know the names of the other people on the ship? I just… um… want to get to know them. Like you said.”

“Yeah, I know most of them. Cyan’s my sister, Katara. And Orange is her sort-of boyfriend, Aang. Like, they’re not _technically_ dating, but we can all tell that they like each other. It’s oogie. And then Lime, the one who I can’t seem to remember is blind, her name is Toph. And Green’s real name is Suki. She’s my best friend. But I think that, when we’re around other people, we should just call them by their colors. Follow protocol. And I don’t know White, Black, or Brown. And I didn’t know Purple, either. They’re just other rebels like you who joined us to help fill the ship.”

“Okay,” Zuko said, trying to commit this to memory. _Sokka, Katara, Aang, Toph, Suki_.

Sokka continued working and said, “Katara and I left home to help fight in the war a few months ago, after we found Aang frozen in an iceberg. He’s from the Air Planet, and had somehow escaped the genocide a hundred years ago and hadn’t aged since. It just seemed like finding him was some sort of omen, like we’d suddenly had hope. And then we met Toph and Suki on our travels. They’re really cool, and also _really_ talented fighters.”

Sokka finished up his task and said, “So, where do you want to go next? Where do you have a task?”

Zuko froze, and tried to remember all the names of the rooms he had been in.

“Um… I have a task in Electrical.”

“Let’s go there then next, shall we?”

* * *

Sokka hadn’t been kidding when he said that they’d keep an eye on each other. They switched off doing tasks (well, Sokka doing tasks and Zuko pretending to do tasks) and Zuko never got a moment to himself to try to sneak off and kill someone. Sure, he could kill Sokka. But everyone knew who the pairings were, they’d be able to figure out who had done it.

That night, they had all decided to rearrange the roommate situation so that everyone would share a room with their partner, and they’d be able to pay attention to each other for as many hours a day as possible.

Sokka and Zuko went into their room, and saw two twin beds, a few feet apart from each other, with one side of each of them pressed up against the back wall.

“Huh, I was expecting bunk beds. I guess we’re just meant to live a life of luxury,” Sokka said, “I’m gonna get into my pajamas.”

Sokka dug into his bag and pulled out a blue tank top with a symbol on it—a crescent moon with waves coming out of it. The symbol of the Water Planets. Sokka took off the shirt he was wearing, and Zuko blushed and looked away. But he had to admit, the little he did see looked good.

 _Stop it_ , Zuko thought to himself, _You’re gonna have to kill this guy eventually. Don’t think about him like that._

After a minute, Zuko heard Sokka say, “Lee? Aren’t you gonna change too?”

“I actually like sleeping in my clothes.”

“Okay, suit yourself.” Sokka looked nice like this, with his hair down.

They began climbing into their beds and Sokka said, “So, my dearest, what’s your _deal_?” 

“I— what?”

“I don’t know. Like, who are you? What goes on inside of your pretty little head?”

Zuko had spent the whole day with Sokka. He was used to his jokingly flirtatious style of talking. Zuko responded, “Oh. Um… I guess I just want to fight the Fire Planet? In any way I can?”

“I mean, yeah, man, me too. We all want that. But who are _you_?”

“I, um... you go first.”

Sokka smiled and said, “Okay, that’s fair. If I ask a question I should be willing to answer it myself. _My_ deal is that my mom died when I was nine, and my dad left to fight in the war a couple of years ago. So I’ve had to take care of Katara, y’know, my sister, since then. And now I’ve gotta take care of Aang and Toph too. I mean, Katara also takes care of them, and she takes care of me. She’s really loving and stuff and she clearly feels some sort of responsibility to be, like, the mom of the group. But she can be emotional sometimes. Not that there’s anything wrong with being emotional! It’s just… I don’t know. She _never_ turns her back on people who could use her help, even if it’s probably not the most rational move. So I try to help keep us on track.”

Sokka turned onto his side to face Zuko and said, “Okay, I’ve poured out my heart to you. Now it’s your turn.”

Zuko took a moment, trying to think of what he could possibly say without sounding suspicious.

“My sister was always better than me at everything,” Zuko said, “She’s younger than me, but she’s always been smarter and more talented. She was always my dad’s favorite because of that. And my mom… well, she liked me better, I think. Or at least, she always made more of an effort to be there for me because she knew my dad liked my sister better. But then, she died when I was ten. My uncle has kinda been like a parent to me, but I still really miss my mom.”

“Yeah, I get that. I miss my mom too.”

They lay in silence for a minute, Zuko staring at the ceiling. He could tell that Sokka’s eyes were still on him. Zuko felt the sudden urge to turn to face Sokka.

“Hey,” Sokka said, smiling. His smile was really nice.

“Hey,” Zuko responded.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Sokka asked.

Zuko was caught off guard. “Um, sure, I guess,” he responded.

“It’s not an accident that we’re partners in this.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“It means that I wanted to assign people partners, y’know to keep an eye on each other and watch out for suspicious behavior. And I saw this really hot guy and thought, ‘damn, I want _him_ to be my partner.’”

Zuko’s eyes widened. “Are you… talking about me?” he asked.

Sokka smiled, rolled his eyes, and said, “ _Y_ _es_ , I’m talking about you.”

Whatever Zuko had been expecting, this was _not_ it.

“So… when you called me pretty a couple of minutes ago… that wasn’t a joke?”

“Um, yeah.” Sokka read the expression on Zuko’s face and said, “Oh, fuck, I’m sorry. I thought… I don’t know. I thought I was picking up a vibe that you liked me too. I just… you never seemed annoyed when I said that flirty stuff. I guess I figured you would say something if you didn’t like it. Now that I say that out loud it sounds super shitty. And I guess I did play it off as a joke, didn’t I. That’s just… it’s hard for me to be genuine sometimes, I guess. Sorry for making this weird. Can we both try to forget about this?”

Zuko stared blankly for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. Sokka’s word vomit was kinda cute. Zuko felt a strong urge to kiss him, and to get that hurt and embarrassed look off of his face.

“Goodnight,” Sokka said, turning to face the other wall.

Zuko knew that he really shouldn’t kiss him. That would be bad. That would make the whole “sabotaging the ship” thing way more complicated. But, agni, he _really_ wanted to.

“Wait,” Zuko said, against his better judgment. He slipped out from under his covers and stood in the space between their beds. Sokka turned his head a bit, and Zuko took that as an opportunity to put his hands on Sokka’s cheeks. Zuko looked at Sokka’s expression. It seemed… nervous and hopeful at the same time. Zuko leaned down and kissed him, softly, for only a second before standing back up. Well, Zuko was off the deep end now. Neither of them said a word for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds.

Sokka sat up and said, “Uh… thanks. Oh, sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. I meant… that was nice.”

Zuko sat back down and said, “Yeah, it was nice.” After a pause, he continued, “Um… do you want to do it again?”

“Oh! Yeah, definitely! Here, I can push my bed against yours, that way the angle won’t be so awkward. Okay?”

Zuko nodded, and Sokka got off his bed and got in a position to push it.

“Um, Lee, you kind of gotta move out of the way. I don’t want to crush you with my amazing muscles.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Zuko climbed over to the other side of his bed.

“It’s no problem, man,” Sokka said as he pushed the beds together, “There! One awesome bed for two awesome guys.”

They climbed onto the bed, both lying on what would’ve been their own bed. Zuko suddenly felt very nervous. Zuko sat up against the wall, and Sokka turned towards Zuko and put his hands on Zuko’s cheeks.

“Is this good?” Sokka asked. Zuko nodded. Agni, Sokka’s eyes were _so_ blue.

Sokka leaned in and Zuko closed his eyes. When Zuko felt Sokka’s lips against his, he momentarily let himself forget about his plans to sabotage the ship, and he tried to savor the moment.

As Sokka’s lips moved against his, Zuko felt something in his stomach that he hadn’t felt in… possibly ever. It told him that he _had_ to keep kissing Sokka. He raised his hands to Sokka’s cheeks and then slipped his tongue into Sokka’s mouth and felt everything about him relax. Slowly, the details of _what_ exactly they were doing stopped mattering to Zuko and they were replaced by a strong desire to _keep_ doing it.

After a minute of this, a thought somehow found its way into Zuko’s head, a thought that he had been trying to push away. He _really_ shouldn’t be doing this. He _really_ shouldn’t be allowing himself to get attached to one of his crewmates.

It took all the effort in the world for Zuko to move his hand to Sokka’s shoulder and push him away.

“Is something wrong?” Sokka asked, seeming concerned.

“I… no, it’s just… I’m tired. I think we should go to sleep.”

“Okay. Yeah, let’s go to sleep.”

As soon as Sokka lay down on his side of the bed, Zuko felt the loss of no longer having his arms around him.

Before he could stop himself, Zuko said, “Do you wanna… cuddle or something?”

Sokka looked at Zuko, smiled, and said, “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

With Sokka’s arm around him and his head on Sokka’s chest, Zuko fell asleep more quickly than he had since he could remember.

* * *

Zuko was a naturally early riser. So, when he woke up, Sokka was still asleep next to him.

 _This is my chance_ , he thought, _He seems like the smartest one here. He is probably the one with the best chance of figuring me out. I should just kill him now. There wouldn’t be any reason to suspect me over anyone else._

Zuko carefully got up, got his knife, and stared at Sokka. Sokka was sleeping so peacefully. He just couldn’t do it.

But he had to do _something._

Zuko got up and walked towards the other rooms. Next door to his room was the room in which Cyan and Black were sleeping. He opened the door, and he saw both of them sleeping. He should kill Cyan. Zuko had barely met her, but she seemed extremely competent. She might be able to figure him out too.

But then he remembered something that Sokka had told him.

_Cyan’s my sister, Katara._

Ugh, _ag_ _ni_ , why was Sokka taking up so much space in his mind? Why had he let himself care so much that he couldn’t bring himself to hurt Sokka’s sister?

He walked over to Black. It had to be quick, and Zuko had to be ready to run back to his room. He raised his knife, took a deep breath, and stabbed Black in the chest. He pulled it out quickly and ran back to his room. Whtie had made a noise, more out of shock than anything else, but it wasn’t loud enough to wake Cyan in time to see Zuko leave the room.

Zuko got back to his room, wiped off the knife, and buried it in his bag. He got back into bed and tried to pretend to sleep for a few seconds, until he heard a scream.

Sokka sat straight up, catching Zuko off guard.

“Did you just hear Katara scream too?” Sokka asked.

Zuko nodded and said, “Yeah, I just heard a scream. I mean, I don’t know who screamed, but if you think it was Katara, then it probably was.”

Zuko was overthinking this and he knew it. He could’ve just said “Yes, I heard Katara scream,” and not gone to lengths to show that he didn’t know who it was. Fortunately, Sokka had more pressing matters on his mind.

“Come on,” Sokka said, “let’s see what’s going on.”

They walked to Katara’s room and saw everyone else in their pajamas also coming to see what was happening.

“There’s another dead body,” Katara said softly, “It’s Black… Black is dead.”

Orange—Aang—rushed to sit by Katara, and everyone stood silently for several seconds. Sokka was the first one to speak up.

“Okay, guys. This is starting to be a little bit terrifying. Do you want to meet up in the cafeteria in a few minutes? So we can talk about what happened?”

No one answered for a few more seconds. Then, Green—Suki—said, “Yes, I think we should talk about this.”

There was another moment of uneasy silence, then people began to walk their separate ways.

“Hey,” Sokka said, taking Zuko’s hands, “Are you okay?”

“I— yeah. I’m okay. I’m just as okay as everyone else here. Are you okay?”

“I mean, _no_ , but also, what you said. I’m just as okay as everyone else.”

Suki walked up to them and said, “Hey, guys.” She looked at their hands and said, “Wait. Are you two… like, together? _Already_?”

Sokka pulled his hands away from Zuko’s and whispered, “ _Yes_ , but don’t say it so loudly. I don’t want to add to Ka—Cyan’s distress.”

“You can call her Katara. I find this protocol just as silly as you do, Sokka,” Suki said. She turned to Zuko, grinned, and said, “Nice to meet you, Sokka’s latest infatuation. My name’s Suki."

“I’m Lee.”

Zuko turned to look at Sokka and saw that his brown skin was tinted red with embarrassment.

“Um, okay,” Sokka said, “Wanna walk to the cafeteria with me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Suki said.

They started walking, and Zuko found himself absentmindedly reaching for Sokka’s hand, and Sokka took it. Zuko was very bad at the whole “don’t get attached to Sokka” thing.

They reached the cafeteria, and Sokka said, “Do you guys want tea or food or something?”

Zuko shook his head. He was still reeling from how absolutely _horrible_ it had felt to take someone’s life like that.

“I’ll have tea,” Suki said. Sokka got tea for himself and Suki, and they sat at the center table together and waited for everyone else to arrive.

Once people had gathered around the table, an uncomfortable silence settled over the group once more. No one wanted to be the first person to talk.

“Okay,” Suki said eventually, “I think we all agree that we need to do something about this. We need to figure out who the impostor is. Um… anyone have any ideas?”

After a few seconds, Lime—Toph—said, “Well, I don’t want to be the one to say it, but I do think it’s a bit suspicious that Cyan found _both_ of the bodies. And that the second one was in her room.”

“It wasn’t her!” Sokka and Aang shouted at the same time.

“Okay!” Toph said, “I just wanted to point out what I think some of us were thinking!”

“Cyan would _never_ kill someone,” Aang said.

“We don’t know that!” Toph responded, “Maybe the Dai Li somehow got to her without us knowing and they brainwashed her into killing!”

After a pause, Katara said, “You can’t be taking this seriously, can you? You can’t possibly be considering that _I_ did it.”

“I mean,” Sokka said, “it _could_ be true. I just think we need to consider all possibilities. If it _was_ the Dai Li then we just have to figure out how to undo the brainwashing.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Aang asked. From the expression on Sokka’s face, Zuko could tell that Aang didn’t usually get this angry. “It wasn’t her. Let’s move on.”

Sokka looked at Suki, who shrugged. Sokka then said, “Okay. Okay, moving on. I don’t know about you guys, but I trust our group more than I trust the new soldiers.”

Zuko felt the blood drain from his face. But then Sokka took Zuko’s hand under the table and squeezed it, as if to say, _I trust you._ That only made Zuko feel more horrible. Sokka really _shouldn’t_ trust him.

“Well,” Suki said, “I’m a pretty light sleeper. I think I would’ve noticed if Brown had left the room.”

“Okay, what about White?” Sokka asked, “Orange, Lime, you were with White, right? Do you guys have anything you want to say?”

“I was fast asleep until I heard Cyan,” Aang said, “So I don’t really know.”

“Yeah, me too,” Toph said, “I sleep like a rock.”

“It wasn’t me,” White said, “I don’t know what to tell you guys to prove it, but it wasn’t me.”

“Okay,” Katara said, “And what about Red?”

Zuko felt all eyes turn to him.

“It wasn’t Red,” Sokka said, still holding Zuko’s hand, “We— I would’ve noticed if he had gotten up. It wasn’t him.”

Maybe kissing Sokka had been a good decision after all. It had clearly gotten Sokka to trust him.

“Why would you have noticed?” Aang asked.

Zuko noticed Sokka blushing.

“I— Well, I, um… Y’know, it’s like what Green said. I’m also a light sleeper,” Sokka said.

“Um, that’s _not_ true. I grew up with you. You sleep _so_ soundly,” Katara said.

“Um. Yeah,” Sokka said and took a deep breath. “Um… Red and I kinda… pushed our beds together last night. So he was really close to me. So I would’ve felt him get up."

Zuko could feel himself blushing too now.

Katara’s eyes widened and she said, “Oh! Oh, um, okay, well, so what do we do now? It doesn’t really seem like anyone is particularly suspicious.”

“We could just… do nothing? Keep an extra close watch on each other?” Aang suggested.

“Nope, not an option,” Katara said, “ _I_ think that we should try to figure out who it is, and eject them from the ship.”

Everyone let that suggestion sit in the air for a few seconds. Zuko became keenly aware that he hadn’t spoken this entire time.

“I think it was White,” Zuko said, “I mean, the five of you seem to trust each other. And I think that Green’s cover for Brown is better than Lime or Orange’s cover for White.”

“Well, I think it’s you, Red,” White said, “For the same reasons.”

“Okay!” Sokka said, “Unless we have other evidence, I think we should vote, and eject the person who has the most votes.”

Zuko could feel Sokka’s pulse quicken. He must be nervous underneath his outward demeanor of confidence.

“No!” Aang said, “We can’t eject anyone. That’s not the answer.”

“Well, we have escape pods. They’ll be able to survive,” Suki said.

“So we’re in agreement, then?” Katara asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Sokka said, “Okay, who votes for White?”

Zuko raised his hand. So did Sokka, Suki, Katara, and Toph. A majority. Zuko breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay, that settles it, then,” Sokka said.

“But we didn’t even _vote_ for Red!” White said.

“Yeah, but, a majority’s a majority,” Sokka said, “I’m sorry. We just need to take whatever measures we can to make sure the crew is safe.”

“I still don’t really want to eject anyone, but majority rules, I suppose,” Aang said.

After they ejected White, Sokka turned to Zuko and said, “Dude, I don’t know _what_ I would’ve done if you’d been voted out.”

Zuko smiled and responded, “Well, I wasn’t, and that’s what matters. Besides, now we’re safe, probably.”

“Yeah,” Sokka said, smiling back, “we are.”

Sokka quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then planted a quick kiss on Zuko’s lips. Zuko could get used to living like this.

* * *

The more time that passed since Black was killed, the more certain people seemed to become that White had been the impostor. After a few days, people started to become looser about calling each other by names as opposed to their colors. Zuko learned that Brown was from the Earth Planet, and his name was Haru. And people also became looser about the whole “partnering up” thing.

But Zuko and Sokka still spent almost all of their time together. The more time they spent with each other, and the more kisses they shared, the more Zuko was able to ignore his goal of sabotaging the ship.

But still, he didn’t completely lose sight of his mission. He knew that he had to do _something_ , or else he’d never regain his honor. But what? He had definitely been the most suspicious crewmate, after White, and White was gone now. They would probably vote him off next if he killed anyone.

Zuko had an idea. Maybe… maybe he didn’t need to sabotage the crew. He could sabotage the ship itself. He could damage the ship badly enough that it wouldn’t be able to continue on its mission, and escape on one of the escape pods.

That way, he wouldn’t have to look Sokka in the eyes and tell him that he had betrayed the crew. Betrayed _him_.

So, the next time Zuko got a chance, he walked around the ship and tried to look for weak points. He walked from the cafeteria into Weapons, then turned right. He walked through the hallway until he had to choose which direction to turn—left, towards Navigation, or right, towards O2. He decided that he would probably be able to do the most damage to the ship from O2.

Zuko walked into the room and saw the big oxygen tank. If there was one thing necessary for the ship to run, it was that. Zuko examined it. If he just destroyed it somehow, he could leave the ship and the rest of the crew would either have to find their way to the escape pods or die. They wouldn’t be able to lead the invasion.

Zuko wasn’t sure how to do it. But messing things up was much easier for Zuko than getting things right. It was an intricate machine. He probably didn’t have to do much to destroy it. So he took out his knife and stabbed at the computer controlling the tank, trying to cause as much harm to it as possible. Maybe that would stop the tank from operating properly.

Suddenly, alarms started blaring. Zuko looked at his personal computer and saw a message.

OXYGEN TANK SABOTAGED. GO TO O2 AND ADMIN TO OVERRIDE.

Zuko had better get out. He ran out of O2 and turned left, towards where the escape pods were. As he ran into Weapons, he saw something that he had not planned for. Or, more accurately, someone.

“Where are you going?” Katara asked, an urgency in her voice, “We have less than a minute to stop this!”

“Oh, um… I’m going to the escape pods,” Zuko said, unable to come up with a lie in time, “I thought we were all gonna abandon ship.”

“No! We have to fix this! We need to make it to the Fire Planet, or else the solar system will be out of balance forever! Come with me, let’s go to O2.”

Zuko had no choice but to go with her. If he left the ship, and everyone survived, then he would’ve failed his mission. And if he didn’t leave, then either he would die with the crew, or he would look very suspicious. He had to go help. Maybe he’d throw off some of their suspicions if he helped.

When they arrived at O2, Katara opened up a keypad and inputted a code on a sticky note. The alarms stopped blaring. Zuko really wished that he ever thought his plans through.

“I suppose someone must have already done it in Admin,” Katara said.

“Yeah,” Zuko replied, “Um, that was a close one.”

“Yeah, it was,” Katara said, “I wonder who did it.” Something about her tone implied that she had an idea of who it was, but she definitely wasn’t going to share with Zuko.

“Um, why do you think someone did it? Couldn’t it have just been a malfunction?” Zuko asked, trying as hard as he could to make his question seem sincere.

“Lee, look at the screen. Screens don’t just break like that. I think this was done intentionally.”

“Oh. I guess you’re right.”

 _Shit_. Oh, this was bad. Katara suspected him. What could he do, though? Kill her? He considered it for a moment. But, no, there was no one else nearby for Zuko to blame it on. And she was awake and alert and ready for an attack, unlike Purple and Black had been. She’d be able to stop him and then everyone would know for certain that Zuko was the impostor. And then he’d fail.

And besides, he wasn’t sure that he could do it for stupid _emotional_ reasons. With Purple and Black, they didn’t _really_ feel like people. Zuko had never had a conversation with them. And he didn’t know their real names, either. But Katara was definitely real. And Zuko didn’t think that he could bear to kill her, knowing that.

 _Ugh_. As much as Zuko absolutely didn’t want to admit it, Zuko cared about her in part because _Sokka_ cared about her. That funny, intelligent, caring, beautiful boy who Zuko was starting to like more and more had really gotten to him, hadn’t he?

* * *

They had another emergency meeting but didn’t decide to vote anyone out. They decided they didn’t have enough evidence that it was sabotage or enough evidence that it was a particular person that they would sacrifice yet another crewmate. Katara was strangely quiet throughout the whole conversation. Zuko wondered what her motivations were for keeping her suspicions quiet. But it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. He just needed to stay out of trouble until he had another idea for how to sabotage the ship.

Later that day, Zuko walked aimlessly through the halls, trying to find another thing he could do to prevent the ship from reaching its destination. He walked out of Storage and was going to turn into Electrical when he heard two familiar voices whispering from behind the wall. He paused to listen.

“... _emotions_ cloud your judgment,” Katara whispered, “That happens to the best of us, but this is really important. You have to have a clear mind about it.”

“No, okay! I _know_ Lee. He’s not the impostor,” Sokka responded.

“Sokka, are you saying that because you know him or because you like him?”

“I— it’s because I know him! Lee wouldn’t do anything like this.”

“Okay, what do you know _about_ him.”

“Um… I know that he got his scar when the Fire Planet attacked his hometown. And I know that he lives with his uncle because his father is off fighting in the war and his mother is dead. And I know that he’s sweet and loving and he’s actually really funny once he gets comfortable around you and… I don’t know! _I know him_.”

As much as Zuko wanted to keep listening to Sokka talk about him, he couldn’t risk letting this conversation go on any longer. He walked into Electrical, smiled, and said, “Hey guys, what’s going on?”

They both stared at him for a moment, then Sokka said, “Oh just, y’know, having a chat. Like siblings do. Um… what’s going on with you?”

Zuko reached for Sokka’s hand and said, “Nothing. I’m just bored, so I was walking around the ship. Do you guys want to go get dinner in the cafeteria together?”

Sokka took Zuko’s hand and said, “Yes. Yes, I do.”

Katara glared at Zuko and said, “I’m not hungry. I’ll get dinner later.”

“Okay, suit yourself,” Zuko responded.

As they left, Zuko asked Sokka, “What’s going on with her?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know. You didn’t… hear any of our conversation, did you?”

“No. I didn’t hear anything.”

“Good. Okay, let’s get dinner, then. I’m starving.”

* * *

Zuko and Sokka were getting ready for bed when Katara opened the door to their room unannounced.

“Hey!” Sokka said, “Ever since you and Aang started sharing a room I’ve _always_ knocked before coming in.”

Katara blushed, but said, “Sokka, I need to show you something. And I want for _Lee_ to be here too.”

This couldn’t be good.

“What is it?” Sokka asked nervously.

Katara reached into her pocket and pulled out a knife. _Zuko’s_ knife. Oh, fuck.

“I found _this_ ,” Katara said, “In Lee’s bag. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Lee, or should we just get it over with and eject you right now.”

“You went through my stuff,” was all Zuko could think to say.

“So you admit that this was in your bag?” Katara accused.

Shit. Zuko really shouldn’t have said that. He began to panic.

“Lee?” Sokka asked, “Is it true? Tell me it’s not true.”

“I— um…” What could he possibly say that would make this better? Agni, there was _nothing_. Nothing to say, nothing that could be done. He had been found out and everything was going to come crashing down, just like it always did. His only semi-coherent thought was that he needed to protect himself, so he got up and grabbed the knife right out of Katara’s hand and pointed it at her.

“Lee, what are you doing!” Sokka asked with a panic in his voice as Katara yelled for everyone to come. Now _everyone_ would see him. Everyone would know. There was no way out.

“Lee!” Sokka yelled, “Please, put the knife down.” Sokka stood in front of Zuko and grabbed his arms. “Please.”

As Sokka’s hands touched his arms, Zuko felt ever so slightly calmer. He dropped the knife and let it clatter on the floor. Katara picked it up and put it in her pocket.

Zuko looked at Sokka. His beautiful blue eyes looked so _hurt_. And it was all Zuko’s fault.

Sokka turned to Katara and everyone else who had started to gather and said, “Can you… leave. Please. I… I need to talk to him.”

“Sokka, I—” Katara started.

“Please, Katara. I need to know why he would do this. We can eject him afterward. I just need to know.”

“I… alright. Let’s go,” Katara said, motioning for everyone else to come with her.

Once everyone had left, Sokka sat on the bed.

“I _trusted_ you. I trusted you _so much_. This whole time, were you just using me? Trying to win my affection so that I would protect you? What kind of sick game is that, Lee?”

Zuko didn’t know what he could possibly say to make this better. But he was off the deep end now; he might as well tell the entire truth. Maybe that would make Sokka feel better, somehow.

“My name’s not Lee,” Zuko said, sitting down against the wall.

“I— what?” Sokka said, looking up.

“My name is Zuko. My father is Fire Lord Ozai.”

Sokka paused, then said, “Okay, whatever I was expecting you to say, that was not it. What are you doing _here_ , your _majesty_?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Oh, I’m _so sorry_ to offend you.” Sokka put his head in his hands and said, “You know, I really liked you. I can’t believe that you somehow tricked me into thinking that you liked me too.”

“It wasn’t a trick,” Zuko said, looking up at Sokka, “That part— that part was real.”

“Oh, so you liked me, and decided to show it by killing two of my crewmates and trying to sabotage the ship?”

“That wasn’t about you! I needed to do that. And I could’ve killed Katara a few days ago, but I killed Black instead. Because I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Then what _is_ it about?”

“It’s about the Fire Planet. I’m doing my duty to them.”

“Okay, fine, but why _you_? Why don’t they get some soldier to do this? Why are they risking their precious prince on a dangerous mission?”

“I’m no one’s _precious prince_ ,” Zuko spat, then he paused and said, “Except maybe… maybe my mother’s. I was telling the truth about her, too.”

“Answer my question. Why are you doing this when it could’ve been assigned to anyone else on your horrible planet?”

“Because… because I have to. To regain my honor. I lost my honor and I need to get it back.”

“I wasn’t aware that people on the Fire Planet knew about honor,” Sokka said, judgment clear in his tone.

“What? Honor is _everything_ on the Fire Planet. It’s a person’s entire worth.”

“Okay, then what could a prince like you have possibly done to lose your honor.”

Zuko paused, not knowing what to say. He didn’t like talking about it. And he didn’t want to admit his biggest mistake, especially to Sokka. But he also couldn’t think of a way to avoid the question any longer.

“I spoke out against my father. He wanted to sacrifice a whole division of new recruits and I said that was wrong. He challenged me to a duel. I refused to fight him, so he took away my honor and banished me until I did something of substance to stop the rebellion. That’s why I needed to stop your ship.”

The silence hung in the air for much longer than Zuko felt comfortable with. Then, Sokka spoke up.

“Dude, I can’t even begin to tell you how _not okay_ that is.”

“I know? I know that it’s dishonorable to refuse a duel. That’s why I’ve been working so hard to set it right.”

“No, Zuko, _listen_ to me. What’s _not okay_ is that your father banished you. What’s _not okay_ is that he challenged you to a duel just for speaking out of turn. I mean, what father does that? Who challenges a sixteen-year-old to a duel? I mean, my father isn’t the _best_ , I mean, he’s been off at war for two years, but _spirits_. At least he cares about me and Katara. At least he’s a great father when he’s around. At least he wouldn’t fucking _banish_ us just for speaking up against him.”

All Zuko could think to say was, “I was thirteen. My father banished me three years ago.”

“Fuck, Zuko, that’s even _worse_. Zuko, come here. Sit with me.”

Zuko looked up and saw Sokka’s pleading eyes. He couldn’t help but oblige. Zuko stood up and sat on the bed next to Sokka. Sokka put his hands on Zuko’s shoulders, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Zuko, I need you to understand that honor isn’t something that anyone, even the Fire Lord, can take away that easily. There aren’t many things that a thirteen-year-old can do that should cause them to be banished by their father. But speaking out against him and refusing to fight him are not those things. Zuko, _your father was the one in the wrong, not you_. Do you understand me?”

On some level, Zuko knew that what Sokka was saying was true. That he had never received real love from Ozai, only from Ursa and Iroh, and maybe Azula, when they were younger, before they started being pitted against each other. And that their love didn’t come with conditions the way that Ozai’s did. It occurred to him that there was only one other person in his life that he felt cared for him as much as Ursa or Iroh did—Sokka. Even after all this, even after _knowing_ that Zuko was the impostor, Sokka still seemed to care about him.

Zuko nodded. He might not fully grasp what Sokka was saying, but he understood enough.

“So then…” Zuko asked, “do you forgive me?”

“I mean, _no_ ,” Sokka said, taking his hands off of Zuko’s shoulders, “You killed people, remember? But, I _am_ open to the _possibility_ of forgiving you now.”

That was all Zuko needed to hear. “What would I need to do?” he asked.

“Well, for one, promise me that you won’t let your father control you anymore.”

“Okay,” Zuko said. That wasn’t going to be easy, but he had to try.

“And two, help us with the invasion. I need for you to prove that you’re really on our side before I’m completely ready to trust you again.”

Turning traitor against his home planet would be hard. But spending this time among these rebels had taught him so much about their side of the war. Maybe… maybe Zuko could join them. Especially if it meant Sokka’s forgiveness. That seemed like the only thing in the world that really mattered at that moment.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Zuko said.

Sokka smiled, put his hands on Zuko’s, and leaned in to kiss him. For that moment, Zuko felt all his tension disappear, until Sokka pulled away and said, “Wait. Oh, spirits."

“What’s wrong?” Zuko asked. Seeing whatever look Sokka had on his face made Zuko feel just as worried as he had felt minutes ago.

“Nothing. It’s just— your scar. Your father did that too, didn’t he?”

Zuko couldn’t help but smile in relief and say, “You know, you’re really smart."

“So I’ve been told. _Spirits_ , your dad sucks. Okay, we should probably tell everyone else what happened. I’m sure they’ll be wondering.”

“Okay.”

They got up and walked out of their room.

Somehow, Zuko had failed his mission, and yet had succeeded in a greater way than he thought possible.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this then comments or kudos would be very much appreciated :)


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